pees on us!

Question
We have a 11 week old jack russell and she is doing awesome! The only trouble is when she gets excited she pees all over the place or us if we are holding her. How do we stop that?

Answer
Congrats on your new puppy!!
She is doing something called Submissive Urination which a lot of puppies do, but if not corrected is very hard to stop when they are older. Here is an article that I found very helpful in trying to explain the reasons pups do this, and good tips on how to train her not to do it. Hope it helps!

Even a dog that is otherwise housetrained may exhibit excitement urination by leaving dribbles and puddles of urine at your feet and on the floor when greeting you. It's normal for some dogs to urinate when they become excited.

Excitement urination usually occurs in puppies and is caused by lack of bladder control. The puppy is not aware that he is urinating, and any punishment will only confuse him. Since he does not know why you are angry, the excitement urination will quickly become submissive urination in an attempt to appease you. As your puppy matures and develops bladder control, the problem will usually disappear. However, in the mean time, it is probably a good idea to do something to help keep your puppy dry.

The best treatment for excitement urination is to prevent your dog from becoming overly excited in the first place. You can do this by exposing your dog to the stimulus that excites her, over and over until it no longer excites her. Most likely, your dog gets excited and wets when you return home. If so, simply ignore him for several minutes. Don't even look at him.

Then leave again for a few minutes, return and ignore, leave, return and ignore. Keep doing this until you can see that your dog is not only unexcited, but is actually getting bored with the whole thing. If excitement urination is a problem when visitors arrive, have them do this too. When your dog has calmed down and is no longer excited when you come in, then very quietly and gently say hello. If any signs of excitement or urinating appear, quickly exit and repeat the coming-and-going routine. A rapid sequence of heel-sits will capture your dog's attention and channel his excitement to the game of heeling and sitting instead of urinating. Remember to ignore all excitement urination and never scold or get angry at your dog when it occurs.

So Tina, in a nutshell, keep it quiet and calm when you greet her, and don't get angry about it because then the excitement peeing will turn to submissive (fearful) peeing! She's still a tiny little thing and most pups outgrow this but it's good to start training now.

All the best with your new little girl. :)